Should leftover [shelf stable] catering item become fair game for FA's?

[medhead]

Sorry, remaining off-topic, but reminded me of a flight a couple of weeks ago (QF), where the FA shoved about half a dozen muesli bars into his bag, following service. Must be an accepted norm.

What was the expiry on the museli bars? I had a flight one night where the FAs were giving away bags of the "snack" to all and sundry. This was because of short expiry and the food was just going to be thrown out anyway.

 

[samiam]

Re: Virgin Australia moving to Full Service?

What was the expiry on the museli bars? I had a flight one night where the FAs were giving away bags of the "snack" to all and sundry. This was because of short expiry and the food was just going to be thrown out anyway.

Well I hope they hadn't expired... myself and another couple of hundred people (but clearly not the entire flight) had just consumed them :shock:

 

[muppet]

Maybe I'm more old fashioned than I thought :shock:. To me, theft should never be considered "norm" :evil:.

If I pass on my 'refreshment', how does it then become QF property and the FA a thief?

And what? They're going through the galley carts and saving everything that's unopened? Then serving it on the next flight? Eeewwww. I hope not!

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Re: Virgin Australia moving to Full Service?

If I pass on my 'refreshment', how does it then become QF property and the FA a thief?

As we're speaking of DJ, I doubt it ever becomes QF property, but who knows!!

The point is, if you choose to say no to a prepack meal it remains the property of either DJ or their caterers. It doesn't immediately follow that it suddenly becomes a free for all. The undistributed pre-pack food may be used on other flights as there's no "fresh" stuff (from memory) and I believe it is not uncommon to have more than necessary food packs aboard. Perhaps they do go in the bin (I hope not rather than Eeewwww, as that would be unwarranted wastage) and perhaps it is part of the FAs and Catering staff written work perks, which is then no problems, but it can not be assumed that they have the right to just help themselves.

I've often been tempted to ask for the unused PE earphones (those nice comfy white ones) after the PE guests have exited and left them on their seats (the kids go through earphones like nobodies business) but have refrained because if they're unused they can be re-used.

It may sound small and petty and insignificant, but if all employees consider it OK to steal from the boss, the boss may well go under. Imagine if all Myer staff thought it within their employment rights to carry off an unwanted store item after every shift! Myer could even fall if that were the case and if they didn't we'd all pay for it........shrinkage I think is the socially acceptable name for it. Theft is what it is to most of us.....small, yes, but theft none the less!

 

[NYCguy]

Re: Virgin Australia moving to Full Service?

Sorry, remaining off-topic, but reminded me of a flight a couple of weeks ago (QF), where the FA shoved about half a dozen muesli bars into his bag, following service. Must be an accepted norm.

Didn't one of their FAs get the boot for misappropriating a pocket-full of chocolate-coated macadamias from the F galley a few years ago?

 

[Justchecking]

Whether it's permitted or not, it's still not a good look to be shoving what was company property into your bag in front of passengers. But a curious thing I've witnessed first hand is that a lot of people's morals are value or quantity based. They don't consider they're stealing something when they 'help themselves' unless they were filling up a bag and carting it off. Just one won't hurt, if often the justification. :shock:

 

[markis10]

I have noticed on a number of occasions crew carry bags of goodies after a flight, and not just from one airline, although the Santos packaging is somewhat distinctive

 

[medhead]

Re: Virgin Australia moving to Full Service?

Well I hope they hadn't expired... myself and another couple of hundred people (but clearly not the entire flight) had just consumed them :shock:

Note I said short expiry, not expired. They still had time to go in the example I experienced. Also it was a QF snack, so package items that could be thrown around without any hygiene problems. The passenger next to me got at least 10 of them to take home.

 

[Archphoto]

I used to work for a Hypermarket in AU, and we used to donate a lot of the short dated food items to Vinnies etc. One day, it came through that we could no longer do so - for some reason, it was now "prohibited" to give the items out.

It used to break my heart to see cartons and cartons of stuff tossed into the large bins, and an awful lot of bread as well. The day before they were perfectly good, today because the date was a day over, they were "off limits".

I guess becoming a more litigious society may be behind the change in views?

Perhaps in the eyes of the FA, they were going to be tossed and they figured it was wasteful too? (Not condoning it, but if the stuff could be donated instead of tossed, maybe it wouldn't get taken quite so readily?)

 

[trooper]

I can see... in strict principle... how it might be "wrong" for an FA to grab unused catering items for personal use...

Then again, if such a principle is to be espoused, we must be consistent..... SO.. any of us who have appropriated anything from our workplaces for personal use - ever - are clearly just as guilty and have no right to judge...

Work in an office? EVER used your employers A4 paper, staples, photocopiers, pens, folders etc for your own personal needs?

No different if you ask me....

 

[Justchecking]

I used to work for a Hypermarket in AU, and we used to donate a lot of the short dated food items to Vinnies etc. One day, it came through that we could no longer do so - for some reason, it was now "prohibited" to give the items out.

It used to break my heart to see cartons and cartons of stuff tossed into the large bins, and an awful lot of bread as well. The day before they were perfectly good, today because the date was a day over, they were "off limits".

I guess becoming a more litigious society may be behind the change in views?

Perhaps in the eyes of the FA, they were going to be tossed and they figured it was wasteful too? (Not condoning it, but if the stuff could be donated instead of tossed, maybe it wouldn't get taken quite so readily?)

You can blame that situation on government regulation which makes food handling now so restrictive that it actually costs companies a lot of time and money to give their excess to the homeless. I used to work for a corporate catering company that donated excess on a daily basis but 'the rules' became so burdensome that we just couldn't do it any longer. It's a ridiculous situation but unless said homeless individuals fish it out of a bin themselves they can't avail themselves of perfectly good food which would otherwise feed them. According to the government it's better that they starve than be given something (which they can decide for themselves whether eat or not) which might give them a tummy ache.

If you've ever watched a homeless person eat something revolting out of a bin, it's just criminal that a perfectly good dinner has gone into landfill while they are shoeing a rat off half a burger.

 

[Archphoto]

You can blame that situation on government regulation which makes food handling now so restrictive that it actually costs companies a lot of time and money to give their excess to the homeless. I used to work for a corporate catering company that donated excess on a daily basis but 'the rules' became so burdensome that we just couldn't do it any longer. It's a ridiculous situation but unless said homeless individuals fish it out of a bin themselves they can't avail themselves of perfectly good food which would otherwise feed them. According to the government it's better that they starve than be given something (which they can decide for themselves whether eat or not) which might give them a tummy ache.

If you've ever watched a homeless person eat something revolting out of a bin, it's just criminal that a perfectly good dinner has gone into landfill while they are shoeing a rat off half a burger.

Figured the government had to put it's little *sticky* fingers into the situation at some stage.

Pity they can't see the forest for the trees and actually do something logical to help, rather than implement so much red tape, you might as well be wrapping a pass-the-parcel gift for eternity. . . . . . .

 

[samiam]

Note I said short expiry, not expired. They still had time to go in the example I experienced. .

There was plenty of code, in this example. From habit through previous work, I tend to always check the expiry date on items and it would have stuck if it expired within the month.

Point taken- different circumstances will affect outcomes.

 

[muppet]

It may sound small and petty and insignificant, but if all employees consider it OK to steal from the boss, the boss may well go under. Imagine if all Myer staff thought it within their employment rights to carry off an unwanted store item after every shift! Myer could even fall if that were the case and if they didn't we'd all pay for it........shrinkage I think is the socially acceptable name for it. Theft is what it is to most of us.....small, yes, but theft none the less!

I really can't imagine Myer having any issues if customers paid for a product and left it there for employees.

We're not talking about going into shelves and taking stuff. I PAID for the coughpy snack - nothing is being stolen. And if QF/VA charge me for something on the presumption that I won't want it and they can sell it again - they're stealing from me.

 

[medhead]

The comments about giving food to the homeless remind me of a Seinfeld episode. The one where Elaine invents muffin tops. Really successful idea, only problem being the muffin bottoms. When she tries to give them to a homeless shelter, she cops a tirade including something like "what aren't homeless people good enough for the top". Bloody fun.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I really can't imagine Myer having any issues if customers paid for a product and left it there for employees.

We're not talking about going into shelves and taking stuff. I PAID for the coughpy snack - nothing is being stolen. And if QF/VA charge me for something on the presumption that I won't want it and they can sell it again - they're stealing from me.

I agree we aren't talking cattle stations here, but Myer would most certainly have a problem with an employee walking out of their store after work each day with Myer stock and using the excuse that a nameless customer bought the item and gave it to him/her!

On your other topic, I don't necessarily agree with you (respectfully, of course). If you walk into Sizzler and buy the "all you can eat" deal and find (like I do) that the food is awful and decide to go elsewhere to eat, you wouldn't claim Sizzler is stealing from you just because they then sell that food you might have otherwise eaten, to another customer! They've fulfilled their part, you've fulfilled yours and presumably the antacid tablets will fulfill theirs later on that evening .

I guess debate like this goes to the basics. Is stealing OK as long as the item is insignificant enough?? I learnt from when I was a very young boy (can only just remember it) "helping myself" to one of those old chewing gum packs from a small corner store during a drive for a holiday (the ones that had about 3 or 4 gum pillows for sale for about 1c). Mum found it and although we had long past the corner store, that was not the end of it. She marched me into a large supermarket (Coles or Woolies) and had the store manager give me a right dressing down. No police became involved but I did have trouble sitting down for a day or so after Mum let me know in her own way (which included an old wooden ruler) that I had done wrong! I haven't forgotten that either and try my utmost to instill the same ethics in my kids today..........doesn't matter how small the item and it doesn't matter who owns the item, if it's not yours and you can't/won't pay for it, don't take it. No debate in my book is required as to who the actual owner of the goods are, if it's not you then that's called stealing.

 

[ash.1111]

At my airline, it's not stealing unless it's being consumed off the aircraft.

 

[simongr]

I really can't imagine Myer having any issues if customers paid for a product and left it there for employees.

We're not talking about going into shelves and taking stuff. I PAID for the coughpy snack - nothing is being stolen. And if QF/VA charge me for something on the presumption that I won't want it and they can sell it again - they're stealing from me.

Actually you didn't - you paid for the option of a snack. QF work out their catering based on models of expected take up of the snack option so if the catering crew take food that was not consumed by the pax it comes out of the available snacks for future flights.

On DJ you buy a snack and if you then decide to leave it for the catering crew that is simply your choice -weird but your choice.

 

[medhead]

Actually you didn't - you paid for the option of a snack. QF work out their catering based on models of expected take up of the snack option so if the catering crew take food that was not consumed by the pax it comes out of the available snacks for future flights.

I totally agree that's how they manage the meal situation in practice. But the advertising clearly states that a "meal" is included in the fare. So, on a technical point, one is not paying for the option of a snack. A snack has been paid for, the fact that some people decline the "meal" does not alter that situation.